Plate [IV]., Fig. 4. (Cat. 836.) A female head of a fine oval form, with a broad, convex forehead, low coronal region, and strongly aquiline nose. This head retains a profusion of long, fine, curling hair, and the face is gilded over the eyes and lips. This is a striking example of the tumid face which is not unfrequently seen on the monuments. Egyptian form.
Remarks.—The two Negroid heads belong, obviously, to the lower class of people, for the bodies have been hastily and imperfectly embalmed, without mummy cases, and in ordinary wrappings. The two latter remarks apply to the other individuals of this series, which have, nevertheless, been much more carefully embalmed.
THIRD SERIES.
FOUR SKULLS FROM ABYDOS.
The city of Abydos, the second in size in the Thebaid, was on the west bank of the Nile, and, like Thebes, possessed a palace of Rameses III., and a temple of Osiris, the guardian divinity of the city.
Plate [V]., Fig. 1, (Cat. 819.) An elongated head, with an indifferent frontal and low coronal region, straight nose, small orbits, and prominent upper jaw.—I. C. 85 cubic inches. F. A. 79°. Egyptian form.
Plate [V]., Fig. 2. (Cat. 820.) A large and finely moulded cranium, with a broad, full forehead, and long, but abruptly salient nose. The upper jaw has a remarkable downward elongation, which reduces the F. A. to 76°.—I. C. 96 cubic inches. A man of 40. Egyptian form.
Plate [V]., Fig. 3. (Cat. 817.) A large, beautifully developed cranium, of harmonious proportions, but somewhat ponderous structure.—I. C. 89 cubic inches. F. A. 80°. Pelasgic form.
Plate [V]., Fig. 4. (Cat. 818.) A small head, narrow and retreating, with a tumid occiput, very large, aquiline nose, and delicate, prominent face.—I. C. 69 cubic inches. F. A. 77°. Semitic form.
Remarks.—In a memorandum accompanying these skulls, Mr. Gliddon observes that “they were obtained from a mummy-pit behind the temple of Rameses III., and they belong to the best class. Among the relics found in the same pit were a scarabæus, bearing the prenomen of Thotmes IV., and a piece of stamped pottery, (apparently enclosed with a mummy to denote the epoch,) which bore the nomen of Rameses III. It may, therefore, be reasonably conjectured, that these remains belong to the eighteenth Diospolitan dynasty, fixed by Professor Rosellini between the years 1822 and 1874, B.C.”